Douglas Garrick

Quick Facts

• Role: Reclusive billionaire CEO of Coinstock; the murder victim whose death anchors the novel’s mystery
• First appearance: Spoken of as an unseen husband; later seen in a news photograph after his death; appears directly in late flashbacks and the final penthouse confrontation
• Key relationships: Husband of Wendy Garrick; boss and surrogate brother to Marybeth Simonds; impersonated by Russell; supposed employer of Millie
• Distinguishing traits: Unpretentious “hopeless nerd” sensibility, strategic mind hidden beneath a slobby exterior, astonishing late-game idealism

Who They Are

Douglas Garrick is the billionaire no one really knows—least of all the reader. To Millie, the “Douglas” in the penthouse is an abuser; to Wendy, he’s a schlubby nerd she can outmaneuver; to the public, he’s a glossy CEO headshot on a cable news chyron. The truth is more complicated: a man whose identity is literally stolen by Russell Simonds as part of Wendy’s con, and whose character is revealed in fragments until it’s too late. His storyline is a fulcrum for the novel’s obsession with Deception and Manipulation and Appearance vs. Reality, where surfaces lie and sincerity arrives only at the edge of tragedy. The supposed “housemaid job” that brings Millie Calloway into the penthouse exists because Douglas himself has been replaced.

Personality & Traits

At first, Douglas reads as a caricature—rumpled, nerdy, and indifferent to status games. But the reveals flip that impression: he can be startlingly strategic and punitive, then unexpectedly vulnerable, idealistic, and hungry for a simpler, truer life.

• Nerdy and unpretentious: He’s a “hopeless nerd” who prefers superhero movies and Nutella from the jar over art openings and tasting menus. Cheap shirts, a paunch, and a resistance to fashion telegraph his indifference to elite performance.
• Trusting to a fault: Early in the marriage, he resists legal advice to require a prenup because “I trust her”—a faith that places him in Wendy’s power.
• Calculating and vengeful: When he discovers Wendy’s affair and deception about infertility, he reveals a hidden steel: he cuts off funds and invokes an infidelity clause, exposing a colder, lawyerly side beneath the schlub persona.
• Idealistic and forgiving: In his final meeting, he proposes giving away most of his fortune and starting over with Wendy—valuing love and moral clarity over wealth. That idealism is genuine but catastrophically misjudges Wendy’s ruthlessness.

Character Journey

Douglas’s “arc” is less personal transformation than a progressive revelation of who he has always been. He begins as an offstage name attached to a supposedly abusive marriage, then becomes, through Wendy’s flashbacks, a slobbish, socially awkward millionaire. The confrontation over the prenup reframes him as shrewd and punitive, a man who can wield power to wound. Finally, in the penthouse, he turns up as a would-be penitent—the rare rich man who wants less. In the process, a cartoon becomes a tragedy: the very tenderness he rediscovers becomes the lever Wendy uses to draw him to his death.

Key Relationships

• Wendy Garrick: Douglas genuinely loves Wendy, and that love initially blinds him. After learning of her betrayal, he pivots to cold leverage—cutting funds and brandishing the infidelity clause—in pursuit of icy Justice and Revenge. Yet his final attempt to reconcile, to donate their fortune and begin anew, reveals a fatal misreading: he underestimates the depth of her greed, and the gesture becomes the pretext for his murder.

• Marybeth Simonds: As his assistant, Marybeth sees the unpublicized Douglas—kind, earnest, and socially awkward—and treats him like family. Her grief curdles into action after his death; she avenges him by killing both Wendy and Russell, a dark mirror of Douglas’s own yearning for justice carried out without his restraint.

• Russell Simonds: Douglas never meets Russell, yet Russell steals his life—his face, name, and domestic presence. The impersonation enables Wendy’s plot and confuses every witness’s perception, making Douglas both absent and omnipresent: the man everyone “knows,” whom no one actually sees.

• Millie Calloway: Douglas and Millie never cross paths. Even so, Wendy and Russell’s performance as “Douglas and Wendy” scripts Millie’s entire involvement in the penthouse—and her misreading of the danger—illustrating how Douglas’s stolen identity manipulates others from offstage.

Defining Moments

Douglas’s presence arrives in jolts—each moment re-situating him from rumor to person to victim.

• The news photo reveal: Millie realizes the “Douglas” she met is not the man on TV—dark hair, soft brown eyes, a double chin, smiling creases. Why it matters: It detonates the impersonation plot and collapses Millie’s assumptions about the penthouse dynamic.
• The prenup confrontation: Douglas unveils the infidelity clause and cuts Wendy off, shifting from bumbling spouse to strategic adversary. Why it matters: It supplies Wendy with motive and stakes, transforming divorce into a zero-sum battle.
• The final meeting in the penthouse: He proposes donating most of their wealth and starting over together. Why it matters: It reveals his genuine desire for moral clean slate—and his catastrophic misreading of Wendy’s priorities.
• The murder: Wendy shoots Douglas after he lays out his plan to give away the fortune. Why it matters: His death is the grim endpoint of the novel’s illusions, proving that sincerity without foresight can be fatal in a world ruled by performance and greed.

Essential Quotes

“Did that nonsense sound like I knew what I was talking about?”

Douglas’s self-deprecating aside after bluffing at an art event captures his anti-pretension. He’s wealthy but refuses the performance of connoisseurship; the line shows both his humor and his alienation from elite spaces Wendy prizes.

“You get ten million dollars if we divorce. But the prenup says that if I have evidence of you cheating, you get nothing.”

Cool, clipped, and devastating, this line exposes Douglas’s concealed strategic layer. It flips the power dynamic—he is no pushover—and crystallizes the conflict that makes murder, not divorce, Wendy’s best option.

“I love you, Wendy. I don’t want to get divorced—I’ve been sick over it. I don’t care what happened in the past… I’d like to make a fresh start. Just the two of us.”

These words lay bare his idealism and longing for authenticity. The irony is brutal: his most humane impulse—love scaled down, money given away—becomes the very cue Wendy needs to eliminate him, completing the arc from misread schlub to tragic innocent.

Symbolism

Douglas embodies the novel’s fixation on surfaces that lie. Publicly, he’s a sleek tech mogul; privately, a Nutella-eating nerd; in Millie’s experience, an abuser—because Russell plays the role convincingly. His identity is literally stolen, and his character continuously rewritten by others’ stories until, in his final scene, he tries to write his own: a simpler, humbler life. The world of the novel doesn’t let him—making him the ultimate victim of deception whose truth is revealed only after he’s gone.